Lounging in the sun, eating ripe fruit until you’re sticky-fingered and satiated, is one of the loveliest indulgences of summer. I’m going through peaches, nectarines, and cherries like there’s no next summer, but there is one fruit that will distract me away when nothing else does: apricots.

Is it their sadly short season that makes them all the more desirable? Whatever it is, I do my happy dance when I see them show up at the farmers’ market, and I put all my other fruit-eating plans on hold until I’ve gotten as much of these velvety jewels as I can.

Hello all, hope you had a great Fourth of July! Today is Pie Day in the blogosphere, if you didn’t get the announcement. Everyone has been invited to bake pie – any pie, and write/photograph/tweet/blog about it. So if you see a great deal of pie on the internet today, I hope it entices you to go out and have a slice of something sweet.

I’m so excited this post has come to fruition. A couple months ago Stephanie of Wasabimon sent out a call asking if anyone would like to do a step by step tutorial on making macarons. I’m not one to turn down a chance to make these dainties, so I responded with a yes. A short while later, Stephanie came by my place with her fancy new camera to document me making macarons using the Italian meringue (or sucre cuit) method.